Household Debt Repayment Prospects Amid Rising Interest Rates
As interest rates rise, the total household debt is projected to approach 2 trillion by 2018. Despite a slight increase in the debt-to-income ratio, continued low borrowing costs are expected to keep the debt repayment ratio flat. Six scenarios are considered, based on different paths for income growth and borrowing costs, with good and bad income scenarios reflecting strong and even growth or weak and uneven growth.
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.... Closer to the Edge? Prospects for household debt repayments as interest rates rise July 2013 www.resolutionfoundation.org @resfoundation #ukdebt
Total debt projected to start rising again, approaching 2 trillion by 2018 .. Borrowing has been flat in cash terms (falling in real) since 2008 due to a combination of falling demand for, and supply of, credit Borrowing is now projected to rise, with Funding for Lending and Help to Buy potentially reducing deposit requirements Source: ONS, National Accounts (outturn) and OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, March 2013 (projection) #ukdebt 2
Resulting in a slight increase in the debt-to-income ratio, returning it to its 2005 level .. Rather than falling back to historic levels, the debt to income ratio is projected to increase slightly between today and 2018, rising from 143% to 151%, equivalent to its 2005 level Source: ONS, National Accounts (outturn) and OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, March 2013 (projections) #ukdebt 3
But continued low borrowing costs mean the debt repayment ratio is projected to remain flat .. Market expectations (and the new Governor s comments) suggest that the base rate will remain close to the floor for a few more years The burden of debt repayments is therefore projected to be broadly flat Source: Bank of England and (outturn) and OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook (outturn & projection) #ukdebt 4
Producing six scenarios that consider different paths for income growth and borrowing costs .. Good income growth assumes that household income growth is strong and even (tracking GDP and being quite evenly distributed) Bad income growth assumes household income growth is weak and uneven (falling behind GDP and being skewed towards more affluent households) #ukdebt 5
We create good and bad income scenarios: strong and even vs. weak and uneven .. The good scenario combines past benchmarks for strong and even household income growth (meaning overall real growth of 7.7%) The bad scenario combines past benchmarks for weak and uneven household income growth Growth rates apply to equivalised incomes; the scenario model uses unequivalised rates of growth. #ukdebt 6
We test two alternatives to the default base rate path, above expectations but well below normal level .. Current market expectations suggest that the base rate will rise slowly from 2015, reaching 1.9% by 2017 Under both the good and bad income scenarios, we consider the impact of rates rising by a further 1ppt or 2ppt over the period Source: Bank of England (outturn) and OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook (projection) #ukdebt 7
Our scenario impact assessment focuses on the affordability of servicing debts in the coming years .. We previously identified 3.6 million debt loaded households in 2012 households spending more than of their disposable incomeon debt repayments To judge the impact of different income growth and interest rate scenarios, we now consider the number of households falling into debt peril households spending more than of their disposable income on debt repayments (often taken to be an indicator of over-indebtedness) #ukdebt 8
The numbers of households in debt peril has fallen since 2007, thanks to ultra-loose monetary policy .. The proportion of households in debt peril peaked at over 3% in 2007, just prior to the financial crisis With the base rate at a historic low, the proportion fell to around 2% in 2011 (and may be a little lower still today) #ukdebt 9
Clearly an increase in interest rates today would push large numbers of households into peril .. A 2ppt overnight increase in the base rate would push 4% of households into debt peril Clearly this cannot happen, but illustrates the level of sensitivity to interest rates and the importance of the current monetary stance #ukdebt 10
Under ongoing low rates and good household income growth, exposure to debt is broadly constant .. Taking an optimistic view about income growth that it keeps pace with GDP and is evenly shared the proportion of households in peril would increase slightly to just under 3% #ukdebt 11
With relatively modest increase potentially pushing large numbers of households into debt peril .. A 2ppt interest rate shock (above current market expectations) would leave the base rate below its pre- crisis level, but would increase the proportion of households in debt peril to around 4% #ukdebt 12
Under the bad income growth scenario, numbers in peril grow even in the absence of interest rate shocks .. Returning to the market expectation trajectory for the base rate but applying the bad income growth scenario would raise the proportion of households in debt peril to around 3% #ukdebt 13
With a 2ppt interest rate shock contributing to a doubling of debt peril levels relative to today .. Under the worst (yet still plausible) of our scenarios, the proportion of households in debt peril would jump to around 5%, more than double the baseline level and significantly higher than the levels recorded even at the start of the crisis #ukdebt 14
Debt peril is most prevalent at the bottom of the income distribution .. In the 2011 baseline, around 5% of households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution were in debt peril In contrast, just 1% of households in the top fifth were in this position #ukdebt 15
Bad income growth generates further relatively uniform increases in peril across the distribution .. The weak growth in overall household incomes underpinning the bad growth scenario means that the numbers affected in this instance rise significantly across the entire distribution Prevalence remains twice as high in the bottom quintile as in the top #ukdebt 16
.... Closer to the Edge? Prospects for household debt repayments as interest rates rise July 2013 www.resolutionfoundation.org @resfoundation #ukdebt
